Shelf Candy No More

I had never read Moby Dick--my highschool English class let us watch the movie--so I picked it up and breezed through it in 11 days. Other than my Moncrieff and Kilmartin translation of Proust, I have not seen the English language so prodigiously handled. I have a couple criticisms and thoughts on the book:

1.) As far as epics go, I got little to no feel of durée; that is a sense of oneself (or the characters) flowing through time. The book is so intent on describing every technical and mundane aspect of the whaling industry, that I feel little has changed these characters from the time they stepped on the Pequod to the time they're drowned and devoured.

2.) We are thoroughly introduced to Captains Peleg and Bildad towards the beginning, only never to hear of them again. Why?

3.) Were Ishmael and Queequeg supposed to be gay?

Comments

[CU]

re: Were Ishmael & Queequeg...

men had very different relations in the 19th century, and were much more intimate with each other, partly because they lived in such separate spheres from women. Both women and men had intense same-sex friendships which weren't necessarily sexual in the modern sense, especially since people were less likely to act on their sexual impulses at that time. Sharing beds was common for men who were far from home, working--lodging was scarce, and most people couldn't afford rooms of their own. I remember the opening scene of Moby-Dick pretty well; I think it was just supposed to convey the camaraderie of the whaling lifestyle, though to a modern reader it seems to be saying something more.